PRO BONO PUBLICO

It is one of the unfortunate features of any educational system that the scholarship of the professor is too often confined within the narrow limits of the college. Men who are specialists in their fields devote all their efforts to the teaching of a select group of students, thereby never giving the general public the opportunity of hearing first hand the results of their long years of study. While it is true that the primary duty of the professor is to educate for future generations, still, present day society, in order to meet its problems, should be given all possible benefit of the scholar's knowledge.

It is a recognition of some such principle as this that lies behind the Lowell Institute. Founded nearly one hundred years ago, this Institute has, through the medium of free public lectures, annually brought to the people the finest fruits of world scholarship. Its work this year is typical. Professor E. S. Mason, of the Harvard Department of Economics, is now delivering a series of eight lectures for the Institute on the subject, "The Economic Problems of Socialism, and of a Planned Economy." At a time when economic issues hold the center of the stage, there could be few questions of more importance to the general public. The depression has thrown the American economic structure into the spotlight of criticism, and people are now beginning to wonder if there are not fundamental defects in the system. At such a time, and with the people in such a mood, it is essential that the public be clear in its mind as to all the issues involved.

It is just here that the scholar can lend his aid; and no finer way for him to do so could be conceived than that furnished by the Lowell Institute. Through the means provided by the Institute, the man who has studied long on a problem is enabled to place directly before the people the fruits of his efforts. Thus scholarship joins hands with the persons of more practical bent to the end of a safer and better progress.